Jackbox the quietest, safest horse i've ever had anything to do with came strait off the lorry from David Pipe having won 10k over hurdles! Only a 4 year old and the sweetest, safest, quiestest thing i've ever come across. Green as grass but bombproof didn't give that lad enough credit!

Although i do agree that riders talk up their ability. I worked for a summer at a riding school that was in glorious countryside and had 100% offroad hacking so v poular. But the amount of people that would come in and tell you they were for all intents and purposes a Whittaker, so you think oh ok they can ride something with a bit about it, put them on something tht isn't a ploddy cob and they **** themselves and can't ride oneside of it.

Then i guess you get people that can't read adverts. When selling my last mare, i explictely said Doesn't hack in company, so not suited to a hunting home. 4 calls in one day asking if she'd hunt!

When I was talking to Dusty's previous owner, I was totally honest about my experience. I told her that I had never had a pony before, and the length of time that I had been riding, even though Dusty is only 12h. I told her that I had the help and support of my RI and other friends who knew more about horses.

She wasn't totally convinced she wanted to loan/sell her but had seen my wanted ad on a board and thought I sounded ideal for her. Her son was killed and Dusty was his pony and she hadn't had the heart to sell her for a few years but felt that she should let her go to someone else. Very sad. Originally, she was going to be on loan but she decided to bite the bullet and sell her to me and I have to say, she was very cheap as she came with everything.

After hearing a lot of pitfalls, from various people, I think we certainly struck lucky!

Helen

It is certainly a minefield out there. A few years ago a friend of mine was selling her TB mare, she was a ginger witch, evil to the core. There was nothing endearing about the horse whatsoever. She was a danger to ride, dangerous in the stable and a nightmare to lead anywhere. She didn't want to hurt you, she wanted to kill you!

The write up made her sound like an absolute dream. A lady responded to the ad and came to see her. 'The ginger witch' behaved impeccably, quiet in her stable and a donkey to ride. I cringed as the lady's 3 children swanned in and out of the stable without a care in the world.

When she left (after leaving a deposit) I asked my friend if her horse had had a personality transplant. She winked at me, smiled and said "It's amazing what a difference 12 acps make" I was furious! That poor woman was duped, her safety (and that of her family) was put at serious risk and I could not hold my tongue. I never spoke to my friend again.

The day she came to collect the horse, again without her knowing, the horse was doped with 16 acp!!!

That sort of trick is despicable but oh so common.

My RI has told me a lot of stories very similar to that. It truly is disgusting!

Helen

eta - ooh, I'm almost a veteran now!

Did she not have the horse vetted??

I couldn't have put it better myself, totally agree with all of this Jackie.

I bought a superb mare from a private sale, but as the old saying goes, handsome is as handsome does, and she tried to kill me on more than one occasion by rearing up and backing onto a main dual carraigeway She'd do the same at every gate I tried to open, and she was sold to me as a good all rounder, a really beautiful 16h2" Irish TB, but she had to go, I wanted to enjoy my riding. Thankfully, because she originally came from a dealer, (and Irish one) he said he would swap her for me. So I ended up with a 4 yr old chestnut gelding 7/8 ID/TB who was actually only 3 according to my vet, but then a dealer will get more for a 4yr old than a 3 yr old, so he got a further grand out of me! I ended up keeping him for 20 years, so no loss there, I shaped him into what I wanted, he was great fun and didn't try to kill me (much!).

My friend's daughter just paid £5K for a lovely young irish sports horse again, from a dealer, a superb all rounder, she adores him, she's had him 3 months, during which time, he went lamer and lamer, and she has had nerve blocks, scans, mri's she's spent hundreds of pounds with the vet, and STILL the dealer won't take him back, (not without a fight anyway), because apparently he was sound when he sold it. The original horse she bought was from a private sale, but he couldn't be left in a box on his own, nor the field, although WHERE she bought him from he was fine of course because he was used to it, but when she moved him to the new yard, it was a different story. Hence the reason, this time she went to a dealer and now look where that's landed her, with a horse she can't ride, out of pocket and no come backs, unless she can get him sound again and the dealer will then take him back.......and sell him on!

Nightmare isn't it, I'm so glad I gave up horses 6 years ago!!!

Nope, first time owner. If she had have done then they'd have found a multitude of problems.

And there is a lesson for all.....never buy a horse without a full vetting.

It's not only first time owners that don't have vetting, people who should know better do it to,

I absolutely agree. The trouble is, many owners believe that a standard vetting is suffice and cannot justify to themselves the cost of getting a 5* vetting for a family 'neddy'. I've accompanied an equine vet on many visits to vet horses and quite frankly the standard vetting is so bog basic that it isn't worth the paper it is written on for experienced/knowledgable horse owners. The only problem he ever picked up on that I didn't, was a problem behind the eye of one horse.

The friend I am speaking of actually had that 5* vetting on this lame horse, so of course, the vet cannot now say, that this is an old injury on the leg of said horse she bought, he is actually saying, that most horses would show this degree of degeneration in the fetlock area somewhere, can't remember! So even a 5* vetting is really not worth the paper it's written on either is it, sadly.